'Farewell Coffee' For Longtime Barnstable County Sheriff Cummings

BARNSTABLE COUNTY, MA — Sheriff James Cummings has been the only sheriff Barnstable County has known since 1999. Cummings is retiring after 24 years as the sheriff, and he'll be replaced by sheriff-elect Donna Buckley.

The Sheriff's Department will host a "Farewell Coffee" with Cummings ahead of his retirement, and the public is invited to attend and bid him adieu.

That retirement ceremony is scheduled for Jan. 3 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility, 6000 Sheriff's Place, in Bourne.

Cummings was sworn in as sheriff in January 1999. His law enforcement career started in 1974 in Framingham, and his assignments included serving as a state trooper out of the Framingham Barracks and Logan Airport.

He was later assigned to investigate organized crime in the Boston and South Shore areas.

In 1977, he transferred to the Crime Prevention and Control Unit attached to the Office of Cape and Islands District Attorney Phillip A. Rollins, where he served for many years.

Cummings was the sheriff when the new correctional facility opened in 2004.